Manifestation of a sharp division on the Palestine subject was apparent as soon as the House of Commons opened today, when Premier MacDonald defended the White Paper in response to a question by Stanley Baldwin, leader of the conservatives.
In the course of his reply to the King’s message, Baldwin referred to the Palestine question, facing the Prime Minister and asking “whether the words of the White Paper do or do not mark a departure in the policy of this country in regard to the Palestine Mandate?”
“They do not,” replied MacDonald flatly. Then he pointed out to Baldwin that when he said that the “word of Great Britain must not be broken” he did not gauge the situation rightly. “The government did not inherit a word, but words,” said the Premier. “And those words are not always consistent with each other.
“What has been done was in the spirit of the Mandate,” he declared. “We are holding strictly to the terms of the Mandate in order to straighten out differences that have arisen between contradictory parts of certain declarations. “I repeat,” continued MacDonald, “that nothing amazed the Colonial Office more than the extraordinary feelings and the extraordinary intentions attributed to that office and to the government on account of the publication of the White Paper.”
tion, according to information received by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. A shower of questions on the new Palestine policy is expected from all parties in the House of Commons.
Opposition to the White Paper will be strong even though Lord Parmoor’s statement in the House of Lord’s today indicates the government’s determination to stand by the paper, in spite of opposition within the party and even in spite of opposition on the part of some members of the cabinet who did not see the government statement until it was printed.
It is pointed out that the almost secret manner in which the document was formulated and suddenly published prevents such members of the cabinet from making their opposition effective as their position does not permit them to join the opposition, even within the labor party.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
